Comparing EU and Us Trade Liberalisation Under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture

We take bound tariffs under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) as the starting point and attempt to measure how much liberalisation in agriculture will be achieved by the European Union (EU) and the US by the end of the implementation period of the Agreement. Using the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) and the Mercantilistic Trade Restrictiveness Index (MTRI) as indicators, we assess the tariff structures chosen by the EU and the US in terms of their welfare and market access impacts. The effects of the actual UR Agreement commitments are compared with alternative tariff reduction schemes such as the 'Swiss formula' and a uniform reduction in tariffs